For most IUP communications, the Communications and Marketing Office relies on the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. Chicago is the industry-standard style guide for publishing for general audiences.
In a few instances, the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual is used—particularly in work produced by the Media Relations and Sports Information offices. The Web Team also uses the Microsoft Manual of Style for some technology-related style issues.
Manuscripts destined for academic journals and works of a similar scholarly nature may adhere to styles represented by still different guidebooks, i.e., APA, MLA, etc.
The Marketing and Communications Office refers to the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Second Edition and has specialty dictionaries on hand for use with certain kinds of manuscripts and terms.
Following is an alphabetized style guide to assist website contributors:
Use the full name of an organization on first reference; thereafter, use the acronym or initials (if, indeed, these are used by the organization): United Nations on first reference; UN on subsequent references.
It is generally not necessary to inform the reader of the organization’s initials, as in United Nations (UN). This should be evident in succeeding sentences. If such parenthetical expressions must be used, make sure the abbreviation actually appears in succeeding sentences.
No matter how familiar acronyms might be to some people, there will surely be readers who do not know what they stand for. Therefore, it is a courtesy to readers to give the full name on first reference and the abbreviation on subsequent references. Initials and acronyms need not have periods. Acronyms of five or more letters tend to become upper and lowercase words with frequent use (Alcoa).
Use the proper form for the individual or group in question:
Proper nouns are capitalized; common nouns are not: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; the orchestra; Council of Trustees; the trustees; Stapleton Library; the library; the University Museum; the museum; Indiana University of Pennsylvania; the university. In the last case, writers of letters and unpublished manuscripts are by no means discouraged from capitalizing university as a common noun if they so desire. What often happens in such instances, though, is that each time the word university is even mentioned, it is capitalized, which detracts from the focus of the piece. (For example, IUP is the largest University in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education and Clarion is another state-owned University are wrong, although the statements themselves are right.)
The following discussion, borrowed from the University of Colorado at Boulder Style Guide, makes the point more clearly:
There has been considerable confusion about whether to capitalize university when the word refers to the University of Colorado. We recommend a foolproof solution: no capital unless you are spelling the full name of the university.
Use of a capital or a lowercase u in university when the reference is to one’s own institution is divided; some institutions—both great and small—use a capital while some do not. It has been more or less customary at CU to capitalize university when referring to the CU system or one of its campuses (in part because older editions of The Chicago Manual of Style did so). However, we strongly recommend that CU writers switch to using a lowercase u for these reasons:
Doing so eliminates any confusion about when to capitalize the word. When writers use the full name—the University of Colorado—or an abbreviation or acronym—CU-Boulder or CU—they will have no difficulty knowing which elements require caps.
The University of Colorado at Boulder is committed to diversity. To that end, the university sponsors several programs and offices that encourage diversity and provide support to university faculty, staff, and students of diverse backgrounds. Developing campuswide understanding of diversity is important at every United States university.
Use chair for the trustees’ docket, unless the convention of another organization dictates otherwise. [Note, for example, that the State System uses chairman and vice chair.]
Use a comma before the “and” in a series. He bought milk, eggs, and bread.
The hyphen is the “dash” character found on your keyboard. Use it for compound words (e.g. read-only file).
The en dash is longer than a hyphen but shorter than an em dash. It is available on the character dropdown menu in the Aloha web editor. Use it for indicating ranges on numbers or letters (e.g. 250–500 megabytes). Microsoft Word does this automatically; the Aloha web editor does not.
The em dash is the longest dash. It is also available on the character dropdown menu in the Aloha web editor. Use it to indicate a break in thought, (e.g., All users—except users of Auxmail—should...).
There are additional uses of hyphens and dashes. For a summary of the Chicago advice about dashes and hyphens, consult “The Trouble With Em ’n En (and Other Shady Characters),” particularly the section “The correct use of em and en.”
When the full date is given, commas are used before and after the year: The trustees met September 23, 2002, to approve the resolution.
According to Chicago, commas are not necessary when only the month is given: The trustees met in September 2002.
By extension, then, the name of the semester in which this guide was compiled is Spring 2007.
Avoid such uses as April 21st, 2003. Use April 21, 2003. [Note: This function can be turned off in Word.]
From Microsoft Manual of Style:
These terms are most commonly used to describe user actions in dialog boxes:
Use bold type in procedures that refer to dialog box titles, labels, and options. Example: On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the View tab. Select the Bookmarks check box.
Use a lowercase “e” and hyphenate the word: e-mail, e-commerce, e-money, e-zine. Do not use “email.”
When adding someone's e-mail address to your content, follow these steps:
Use the proper form for the individual or group in question:
Emeritus – one man
Emerita – one woman
Emeritae – more than one woman (a group constituting only women)
Emeriti – more than one man or mixed group
Because we’re trying to communicate as clearly as possible and because most readers will probably not be accountants, it’s probably best to use, if possible, a designation that parallels that of the academic year: the 200708 fiscal year.
Freshman is an adjective and a noun. Freshmen is never an adjective. The freshman class donated money. Her son is a freshman at IUP. The new freshmen were shy at first.
Use Heading 2, Heading 3, etc. to mark the structure of a document. E.g., if the document has two main sections, use Heading 2 for the title of each.
Use semantic HTML whenever possible. I.e., use HTML lists to format lists, heading to format headings, etc. Using semantic HTML makes our webpages easier for Google to search and helps us maintain consistency throughout the site, as these elements are automatically styled to match our templates.
When written out, the university name should always be Indiana University of Pennsylvania (not Indiana University of PA). “The” should not precede “Indiana University of Pennsylvania,” as it
is not part of the university’s name: i.e., do not do this: “I attend the Indiana
University of Pennsylvania.”
After the first use of the full university name, use IUP for further references on the same page or news post.
Link text should identify the item being linked to. Avoid using “click
Don't make surrounding punctuation—such as periods, commas, or quotes—part of the link.
Examples: See the Travel Expense Voucher. Or, just
Travel Expense Voucher.
Give first name, surname, and title on first use. Use just surname thereafter, without designations Mr., Mrs., Dr., etc
Avoid initials—either in the middle of a name or at the beginning. Exception: when two people have the same first and last names and might be confused by the reader.
For the trustees’ docket, use the name of the individual that is in the IUP Directory.
Spell out one through nine; use numerals for 10 and higher. (Chicago section 9.3, page 464)
Exceptions: Use numerals for percentages and in other mathematical or scientific contexts. Spell out numbers 10 and higher when they begin a sentence.
Either include “to” or use an en dash (Mac: option+-, Win: alt-0150; use the keyboard number pad)
Years use an en dash, in this format:
One word in all cases. (Changed July 2010.)
Carl wrote an online blog.
Carl’s blog went online.The class is online.
PASSHE is no longer the term preferred by the Pennsylvania State System of Education. See State System, below.
Percentages are always given in numerals. In running type, spell our the word percent.
Example: Only 5 percent of the students voted in the election.
Use roman numerals to designate each phase: Phase I, Phase II.
Our format for ten-digit phone numbers is
style does not italicize articles at the beginning of a publication’s name, so
proper use is the Beak, not The Beak. See Chicago 8.168.
Avoid use of the word full as an adjective for professor. Each year certain faculty members are promoted to professor, not to full professor.
Use the quotation marks and apostrophes provided in the Ektron editor toolbar. They are the “curly” quotes and apostrophes, as opposed to the straight.
Use a capital letter when referring to a specific semester or session: During the Fall semester, plans were made for the next year’s Summer sessions.
When only a season, not a semester or session, is referenced, use lowercase: In the fall, we’ll plan courses for the following summer.
Use only one space after punctuation at the end of a sentence and after a colon.
The space between paragraphs, before headings, around list items is handled centrally. In general, allow Ektron to control this spacing and do not add extra blank lines between paragraphs. This can cause difficulties when content is printed, repurposed, or switched to a new template.
Follow the rule in Capitalization of Proper vs. Common Nouns above, using, on first reference, Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. In subsequent references, use the System or the State System. (PASSHE is no longer the term preferred by the Pennsylvania State System of Education.)
Abbreviate according to the following list. Avoid use of postal abbreviations (PA, CO, etc.) in running type or for anything other than addresses. Avoid using Pennsylvania after such obvious locations as Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Erie, Altoona, etc.
Alaska, Ala., Ark., American Samoa, Ariz., Calif., Colo., Conn., D.C., Del., Fla., Ga., Guam, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Ill., Ind., Kans., Ky., La., Mass., Md., Maine, Mich., Minn., Mo., Miss., Mont., N.C., N.Dak., Neb., N.H., N.J., N.Mex., Nev., N.Y., Ohio, Okla., Ore., Pa., P.R. or Puerto Rico, R.I., S.C., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex., Utah, Va., V.I. or Virgin Islands, Vt., Wash., Wis. or Wisc., W.Va., Wyo.
Use a colon and zeros for on-the-hour times, and lowercase the a.m./p.m. Use noon and midnight to avoid confusion. Example: 7:00 a.m.
Use the en dash when giving a range of times. This is between an em dash and a hyphen (the width of an “n”): Office hours are 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Capitalize a title when it immediately precedes a personal name. The examples Chicago gives are President Lincoln; the president; Dean Mueller; the dean. [Note: Different rules may apply in lists, as opposed to running text.]
Avoid stacking titles before the name; choose one and use others elsewhere. For instance, avoid Fine Arts Dean Mr. Michael Hood in favor of Fine Arts Dean Michael Hood and, on second reference, Mr. Hood or Dean Hood.
Do not put URLs in running text that is to be
read by users. For instance, instead of “Find out more at www.iup.edu/alumni,” use “Find out more on
the Alumni website.” This is easier for
users and good search engine optimization.
Although URLs such as iup.edu/admissions work,
we strongly prefer that all URLs in print items include the www., i.e., www.iup.edu/admissions.
Do not hyphenate vice president.
Capitalize the “W” in the Web, but lowercase (and make one word) website whenever it is used. Also lowercase webpage (one word).
When using words with wide, the suffix should be added with no hyphens, e.g., campuswide, universitywide, worldwide, etc. Chicago (see above) uses hyphens after words of three or more syllables. However, that seems unnecessarily cumbersome, and universitywide is increasingly preferred. AP favors universitywide.
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